


Start Over

by UltimateGryffindork



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 14:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19889644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateGryffindork/pseuds/UltimateGryffindork
Summary: Set immediately after "Coach III". Bitty rings Jack, who has some advice.orBitty and his dad finally get onto the same page.





	Start Over

**Author's Note:**

> The last update hit quite close to home in many ways, so this is very much me working out some of my thoughts and feelings in fanfiction form! There is a happy ending, perhaps an unrealistic one at least for the timeframe, but I honestly think Coach wants to do the right thing but just doesn't know what to do. Hope you enjoy reading!

_Jack <3 <3 <3: How did it go with your dad?_

Bitty didn’t bother replying, going straight for the facetime button. Jack replied instantly, still in his game day suit in the kitchen.

“Hey bud,” Jack said, concern across his face. “How was it?”

Bitty tried to answer, sniffling loudly as tears ran down his face. “It was – it was so hard. He talked about you all the time and kept calling you my friend, over and over, and when I called him out on it he got all defensive, basically said it wasn’t normal, and he got mad at me when I said he wasn’t being supportive and I don’t know what to do because all I want is for my daddy to be happy for me. Is that too much to ask? He doesn’t even need to be proud, I don’t care about that anymore. Or not even happy! Just okay! To acknowledge that I am who I am and to just be okay with it! Why can’t I have that, Jack?”

He curled in on himself as he continued to cry, wanting nothing more than Jack to pull him into a hug and kiss the top of his head and tell him it would all be okay. Instead he settled for the tiny picture on his screen, glitching on the crappy Haus WiFi.

“Oh god, Bits, that’s awful. I’m so sorry, I wish I was there with you. You shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”

“That’s okay, honey,” Bitty sniffed. “You had a game to win – which I want to hear all about, by the way. It’s just – I think he thinks I’m a mind reader, y’know? I asked him, outright, whether he thought I was messed up--”

“Oh, Bits!”

“—I know, it was – I was crying a lot, and we were in the car, and this whole weekend just brought up so much that I thought I’d moved on from and it all felt so _raw_. But I asked him and he said of course not, like I’m just supposed to know that! It’s like he thinks he doesn’t need to say things to me, that I’ll just know what he thinks of me all the time. I told him he wasn’t being supportive and he said of course he was, he came to see my game! One game, in over three years! And I’m supposed to take it and be grateful, like he thinks he can tick some sort of minimum-parenting-required box and get away with everything else.”

He paused mid-rant to see Jack deep in thought. “What is it?”

Jack startled slightly at being caught out. “Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about something, but it’s not important. Not when you’re upset.”

Bitty narrowed his eyes. “What is it?”

“It’s really nothing.”

“Jack.”

“Fine.” Jack ran a hand through his hair. “But can I say first that I’m completely on your side all the time and will always support you and have your back no matter what?”

“ _Jack_.”

“Okay, just don’t get mad at me. We’re on the same team here. It’s just… well, you said about him expecting you to read his mind. And I couldn’t help but think that maybe, you two are similar in that respect. Hear me out!” he added quickly, as Bitty began to stutter out an indignant response. “I agree that he should be more supportive and vocal about that. But you haven’t seen him since March, barely spoken to him, and so much has changed in your life since then. This is unfamiliar territory for him, and he is probably confused as to how he should be supporting you. I mean, he watched his son kiss another man on national television and yes, you told them we were together, but they don’t know anything about our relationship, or your coming out story, or what life is like being out at Samwell, or any of that. For the first time he’s realising how little he knows about your life, and maybe he was dealing with that and trying to be supportive in the only way he knows how.”

Bitty frowned. “But it’s not enough.”

“I know it’s not!” Jack said quickly. “I’m not saying it is. Just that… just that if you called him, and told him about those things, maybe he would have a better idea of what he could be doing right. I’m sure it wouldn’t fix everything, but it’s worth a shot, right?”

There was a long silence. Bitty shrugged, picking at a loose thread on his blanket. “I guess. He did – he did say something about you coming over for winter break. Although he did still call you my friend, but I guess, that’s something? That, that him and Mama want to spend time with you?”

“That’s great, bud. It really is. Are you okay? I can drive down if you need me to.”

“I’ll be okay, no need for you to come all this way at this time of the night,” said Bitty, giving a small smile. “Now, distract me. Tell me all about your game.”

***

Bitty waited a couple of days for the dust to settle before ringing home. He could put it off no longer; he’d just put his fifth pie of the weekend into the oven, had washed and cleaned the whole kitchen, and to everyone’s surprise had finished his essay that wasn’t due in for another week before he had to admit that he could put it off no longer.

The phone rang a couple of times before it was answered by his mother. “Dicky! How are you, sweetheart?”

There was a tone of caution in his mother’s voice that had been there ever since he’d rung her after the Cup final all those months ago.

“I’m fine, Mama. Is – is Coach there?”

“Oh, he – yes, he’s in the den. I’ll get him now for you. Is everything okay?”

She sounded worried. Of course, Bitty thought, Coach would have told her about their conversation.

“Yes, Mama. I just wanted to say hi to Coach.”

“Good. Your daddy’s on his way now. You know, Dicky, for you two being so different, you can be just alike sometimes.”

Bitty cracked a smile despite himself. “Jack said the same thing.”

He felt rather than heard his mother exhale. “Well, good to know you’ve got a smart one there. Say hello to him for me. Your daddy’s here now, I’ll pass you over.”

“Thanks, Mama. I love you.”

There was a pause as they both cherished the moment.

“I love you too, Dicky.”

“Hello, Junior.” Coach’s gruff voice echoed down the phone, slightly distorted. He’d never got the hang of holding it without covering the microphone.

“Hi Daddy. Did you have a good flight home?”

“I was in a middle seat. Could have gone better. No delays, though.”

“Good.”

There was a long silence.

“Junior--”

“Daddy, I--”

“You go first, son.”

Bitty took a deep breath. “I just wanted to talk to you. About what happened. Not just this weekend, but – the whole summer. And before that. It’s just, you don’t really know me anymore, and I thought… I thought that if I changed that, maybe that would make things easier. For you.”

He heard Coach sigh deeply on the other end of the phone and could see him in his mind, his hand absentmindedly running over his moustache as it always did when he was carefully choosing his words.

“I would like that. But you shouldn’t have to do that, you shouldn’t feel like it’s on you. I’m the parent here. And maybe I assumed things were fine for a long time when they weren’t.”

He stopped for a second, and Bitty knew he was thinking about what to say next.

“I’m just confused. Because I thought you could come to me about the important things, you always did before. Sure, you’d go to your mama first, but you used to tell me things. And I always wondered if you were, if you might be, you know.”

“Gay?”

“Yeah.”

Bitty decided not to push that one for now.

“But I figured hey, when you were ready, if you were, you’d tell us. And you might tell a couple of friends first, maybe, cause I get it, it’s a scary thing to tell your parents. But I thought you’d tell us eventually, maybe if you started seeing someone, or if your friends already knew. And I was ready for that. I was gonna tell you that we weren’t surprised, and that if that’s how God made you then that’s that, and I’m sure your mama would have said something about still giving her grandbabies. But then when we found out the way we did, I wasn’t sure if you wanted that. Or needed it. You were obviously happy, and it obviously wasn’t a big deal to you if the whole of Canada knew at the same time your mama and daddy did, and I didn’t know what to do. No-one prepares you for that sort of thing. I figured if we went along with it all, didn’t really say anything, you’d tell us all about it in time. And I shouldn’t have done that. I should have given you a call to tell you all those things I imagined saying to you if you’d sat us down after dinner and told us in the den.

“Now, you know as well as I do that this ain’t hockey country, but they still have ESPN and that Twitter, and sure enough people have been asking after you, some kinder than others. And after I got fed up of telling them to mind their own goddamn business, I would tell them that I’m proud of you and proud of Jack. But I shoulda known that telling that to my gym buddies or the vice-principal ain’t the same as saying it to you. I’ve done nothing but think about you, Junior, every day since we saw you on the TV, and especially since I saw you this weekend. You have this whole life that I know nothing about, and if it’s okay with you, I’d like to start over.”

Bitty sniffed loudly, blowing his nose and rubbing furiously at the tears running down his face. “I’d – I’d like that, Daddy. I’d like that a lot.”

“Good. Now, tell me about this boy of yours. Is he treating you well? And your team, they don’t give you any trouble? Is he all caught up on the jam feud? Because let me tell you this now, if I have to hear one more snippy comment about your Aunt Judy’s raspberry conserve…”

Bitty smiled, and told his father the story of him and Jack.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please leave kudos or a comment  
> Twitter: @gracewhowrites  
> Tumblr: gracewatsonauthor (writing) or singing-fangirl (main)


End file.
